‘We share their pain’: Israel rushes to offer Lebanon aid
LEADERS IN Jerusalem had two responses to this week’s tragedy 350 miles away in Beirut. The first was to offer aid — and the second to fathom what it means for Israel’s security.
On Tuesday, soon after the explosions that killed more than 100 people, wounded more than 4,000 and left an estimated 300,000 homeless, Israel relayed an offer of help.
“Israel approached Lebanon through international defence and diplomatic channels to offer the Lebanese government medical humanitarian aid,” said Benny Gantz, Minister of Defence, and Gabi Ashkenazi, Foreign Minister, in a joint statement.
Meanwhile, Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa, Ziv Medical Centre in Safed, and Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan all offered to receive wounded from Lebanon.
But Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed terror group and political party, has significant power in Lebanon’s government. Defying the expectations of some, it has not tried to blame Israel for the explosions but it is expected to block Lebanon from accepting help. As the JC went to press, there had been no response from Beirut.
Some international figures were surprised to see Israel offering help to an enemy state. “The only encouraging thing in this catastrophe in Lebanon is that even Israel has been quick in offering humanitarian aid,” the former Swedish prime minister and diplomat Carl Bildt tweeted.
Orit Farkash Hacohen, Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister, asked him in response: “Why are you surprised?” She wrote: “Israel defends itself from its enemies, while helping the civilian population wherever it can,” noting that Jerusalem has offered aid to Tehran and Baghdad and helped Syrians during the civil war.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed National Security
Hezbollah has not tried to blame Israel for the explosions
ISRAEL STRUCK Syrian military targets on Monday, and confirmed the attack, in a new drama across the country’s already-tense northern border.
The IDF unleashed the strike in retaliation for an attempt by unidentified militants who crossed from Syria to Israel to plant a booby trap that was meant to target Israeli troops.
Early on Monday morning soldiers “spotted a terror squad placing explosive devices adjacent to the security fence,” the IDF announced, saying that troops and an aircraft “fired simultaneously towards the squad of four terrorists, [and] a hit was identified.”
The retaliation took place late Monday. While Israel often refuses to confirm or deny attacks, the military stated that “attack helicopters and aircraft struck military targets in southern Syria, belonging to the Syrian Armed Forces.”
It added that Israel holds Syria responsible for all attacks emanating from its territory, and stated that the targets of its retaliation included “observation posts and intelligence collection systems, antiaircraft artillery facilities and command and control systems in Syrian Armed Forces bases.”
It is unclear who launched the booby trap operation, but some analysts suspect that it was Hezbollah, out for revenge after one of its operatives was killed in a strike allegedly carried out by Israel on Damascus on July 21.
Hezbollah tried to avenge the death of its operative last week, with an attempted infiltration that Israel foiled, and it is thought this may have been take two.
As the northern border is on high alert, Israel’s southern border with Gaza is also increasingly tense. On Sunday, the first rocket was fired in four weeks from Gaza. It did not cause damage or injury but the IDF responded with force in line with its doctrine of deterrence.
“IDF fighter jets and aircraft targeted Hamas terror targets in the Gaza Strip,” the military announced, saying that they destroyed a concrete factory used to make “underground infrastructure,” a reference to Hamas’ tunnels that are prepared for smuggling and terror attacks.
Israel’s military is heavily occupied with coronavirus as well as defence, newly in charge of a range of tasks associated with stemming the pandemic. It has selected Brigadier General Nisan Davidi, who used to head logistics at the Home Front Command, to lead national efforts to determine who should go into quarantine.
The second wave appears to be falling, with the number of active cases down from last week’s peak of 36,378 to around 26,000.
In one of the biggest decisions related to international travel, the government decided to allow 17,000 youngsters signed up to gap year programmes, yeshivot, seminaries and university exchanges, to enter Israel, on condition that they quarantine upon arrival.
The apparent reining-in of the second coronavirus wave has not quelled the anti-Netanyahu anger and calmed ongoing demonstrations that resonate with calls for his resignation.
Neither has the arrival of one-off grants in citizens’ bank accounts, worth hundreds of pounds per family, despite being paid at Mr Netanyahu’s direction, and his trumpeting of how they should help the economy. “We do not rest even for a moment,” he said at a meeting of the coronavirus cabinet, proposing “more and more plans, more and more money for the citizens of Israel and businesses in order to move the economy forward.”
The protests are addressing a range of issues including Mr Netanyahu’s alleged corruption, government disconnect from the public and the state of the economy. They are attracting record numbers, with the crowd outside the Prime Minister’s Jerusalem residence reaching 10,000 on Saturday night, as other protests took place in Tel Aviv, outside the Netanyahu family home in Ceaserea, and elsewhere.
Demonstrations and counter-protests have been held several times this week, mostly been free of violence. But there is concern that violence seen last week could escalate, and Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin even raised worries that a demonstrator, or the Prime Minister, could end up getting killed.
There is concern that last week’s violence could escalate’